Date Lab: First impressions aren't everything

Adrienne: I had the day off, [so] it was a relaxing, easy day. It was very hot outside, so I was a little nervous about that, [thinking], I'll show up and be a sweaty mess. I got there about 7:25.

Chris: I had crazy day. It was kind of a crunch to get there. They took me back to a booth, and there she was. I thought she was cute. She has great red hair, this awesome hair. I tend to like girls that show signs of being foreign-born or maybe have something ethnically awesome about their looks. She has more of a homegrown Midwestern look.

Adrienne: I thought he was good-looking and tall. I guess, based on the glasses, I thought he was going to be kind of hipster-ish. I didn't know -- should I stand up, should I not stand up? I ended up standing up, and he gave me this awkward hug and kiss on the cheek.

Chris: I said "awkward," and we both laughed. I tried to draw attention to that as opposed to trying to ignore it. I got a caipirinha, and she got a mojito. She said, "I'm not going to ask you what you do." I said, "Okay, good, let's talk for 15 minutes and then try and guess what each other does." I totally guessed [the federal agency] she works for.

Adrienne: I was kind of close on what he did -- I thought he was a photographer, and he is a videographer. I'm a still photographer on the side. We talked about photo gear a little bit.

Chris: We charged ourselves with getting through all the pictures [on the cameras provided by Date Lab] by the end of the night. That's a good way to do dating in general -- to have goals for the evening. She talked about a surf retreat she had done in Panama. I do a lot of surf travel. They had one of those [paper] tablecloths you can write on. I drew a map on the table. I asked her to plot the course of her life on it -- it was a great way to talk about her history.

Adrienne: We talked a lot about traveling, because that's a hobby we both have in common. He did most of the drawing. The entire table was pretty much covered.

Chris: About three-quarters of the way through dinner, we ripped off a piece of the tablecloth and gave each other our contact info.

Adrienne: He was very entertaining. It seems like he's had a very interesting life and seemed very informed about various topics. That was something I was drawn to.

Chris: I would not say there was a lot of chemistry at first. I thought there was a limit to how interesting she could be. When she first started talking about going cross-country and working on organic farms, I thought, Maybe this is the craziest thing she has ever done and this is her big traveling moment. Then she started to come forth with all this great life experience -- she traveled all over the world, she worked in the Peace Corps, she's a photographer and a scuba-dive master. She certainly got more attractive as the night went on. She's the kind of person that only gets better the more you know her.

Adrienne: I think we had a very nice conversation, [and] I think we were flirting. I think there was chemistry. In the restaurant, he told me that I was more interesting than he thought. I guess I took that as a compliment. And then he mentioned tickets he had to a friend's performance in Chinatown.